Students Donate to Local Food Pantries

At the end of the spring 2025 semester, students were given the option to donate their unused Dining Dollars to purchase food for Kent County non-profits.  

Students and staff sort food donations purchased with student donations for local food pantries.

This summer, a group of interns and staff delivered hundreds of pounds of food to three local food banks thanks to the generosity of students as they wrapped up the spring semester.  

At the end of the year, students can take any unused dining dollars they still have and spend them on a bulk order of packaged foods to have at home over the summer. But in looking for ways students could benefit the Kent County community, Student Government Association cabinet members Joseph Atkins ’28 and Kai Follett '27 realized they could leverage that process to help supply food pantries in the College’s community.

They shared the idea with the SGA senate, distributed flyers and sent emails to students, encouraging them to consider donating their leftover dining dollars. When the drive was complete, students had given $13,398.

“I was blown away by the amount of money we raised. The kindness of all the students who donated their dining dollars was really amazing. I was always sure we would raise a decent amount of money, but I was not expecting as much as we actually received,” Atkins said. “Kai and I both worked really hard for this drive, and we could not be more proud of the money that was raised. It shows the impact that students can have within their communities and that we all have the ability to help those in need in some way.”

Jeremy Schultz, executive chef in the dining hall for the College’s food services vendor, AVI, used the money and worked with their regular suppliers to buy several pallets of packaged foods, which were delivered in June. Students still on campus as interns for the Washington College Center for Environment and Society worked with the Center’s Associate Director for Civic Engagement Laura Chamberlin to sort, organize and distribute the food.

As a member of the College’s hunger and homelessness committee and volunteer in the Chestertown community, Chamberlin connected with three local non-profits who could use additional resources for the summer: the Kent County Food Pantry, the Millington-Crumpton Food Pantry, and the Blessing Bags Food Pantry in Rock Hall.

“The last year has seen a rapid rise in the overall cost of living, especially basic needs including food, housing, and utilities. This has meant that the number of people in our community that are in need increases daily,” Chamberlin said. “This donation helps to alleviate some of the pressure on the pantries, which is very important at a time when they are seeing cuts in funding.”  

Deeann Jones, program director of the Kent County Food Pantry, reaffirmed those points, saying the average number of people seeking their help each week has increased by about 35 to 60 percent, and having donations from the students meant the pantry could use its budget on perishables and other foods.

“Since we’re serving more people and our budget doesn’t change, we have to make adjustments,” Jones said. “So when we get donations like this from the community, it definitely makes a large impact."

The different food pantries measure donations’ impact in different ways, and it is hard to arrive at exact numbers with any method. But Jones said Kent County Food Pantry received more than 1,100 pounds of food from the Washington student drive, and the Millington-Crumpton Food Pantry estimated 225 families benefited from what they received from the College. The Blessing Bags program in Rock Hall runs a bit differently, as reflected by its name. It creates bags of food that can be distributed since children who rely on public schools for food don’t have that as a resource in the summer.

“Much of the food donated from AVI and the college students was ready-made or very easy to prepare, which is great for our youth and senior neighbors who often have limited ability to cook meals for themselves,” Chamberlin said. “Aside from the direct benefit to neighbors, this food donation event is a learning opportunity for our students to connect to the community they are living in, take leadership on a community action project, and better understand the complexities of coordinating a large project with many stakeholders.”  

The students involved and moved by the project went beyond organizers Follett and Atkins. With both of them off campus for the summer, the sorting, labeling, organizing, and delivery of food to pantries was handled by CES interns during time they had free from their regular duties. Mia Snyder ’26 moved, sorted, and labeled boxes with Chamberlin a couple of times.  

“I think this food drive was the perfect usage of extra dining dollars and something that I hope will be continued for future years,” Snyder said. “Being able to help with this process was very fulfilling as I understand the importance of how these donations have the power to change someone's day. Especially with the backpack program, as we were sorting out food, I imagined these boxes filling the bags of kids who would enjoy the snacks and meals.”  

Volunteers with the Blessing Bags program came to campus to pick those boxes up—part of their service involves moving food resources around the county since many of the people who need help don’t have transportation—but College students delivered to the Kent County Food Pantry. The first batch to go over was unloaded by Ella Kozlowski ’26 and Nathan Michel ’27.

“I thought that it was a wonderful initiative by the College and its students as a way to give back to the local community,” Michel said. “I enjoyed working on it with my fellow students. Although I only helped out with a few hours of my time, it was very rewarding to see all of that food get donated to people in need.” 

— Mark Jolly-Van Bodegraven